By Ubisoft released their long-in-the-works multiplayer sailing game “Skull and Bones” just over a week ago and the results have been anything but impressive.
Upon launch, the game sailed to mixed-poor critical reviews with a Metacritic score of 60 on PS5 and 59 on PC. User reviews are worse at just 3.6/10 – one of the lowest Metacritic user scores for a game in 2024 thus far.
Touted as the company’s first “AAAA game,” its player count isn’t showing up as such according to Insider Gaming who says the game currently has around 850,000 players total at the end of the first week.
That figure includes those who have opted to play the game with an eight-hour free trial provided by Ubisoft – so the number of those willing to pay or continue on with the game is likely considerably lower.
The outlet indicates the game is forecasted to cost the company around $200 million in its decade-long development – a “sum that the company doesn’t expect to make back”.
Thousands of developers worked on the game across eleven different studios as the title, initially inspired by the sailing segments of “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag,” saw countless changes in creative direction and constant internal delays.
Gamespot in their review says: “Everything that was great about Black Flag has been ripped out to accommodate tedious live-service elements and a half-baked multiplayer that makes you feel disconnected from other players.”
One of the biggest factors for the low player numbers is the company’s decision to charge a full price of $70 – a decision the report says has been criticized both publically and internally. One employee says: “I think we all know this is a $30-$40 game at best, but it’s not in our control to determine those things.”
The year has already seen two titles – “Palworld” and “Helldivers 2” – become live service smash hits whereas others like “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” have crashed and burned.
Source: Game World Observer
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